Our rights are not absolute as politicians like to remind us. Our rights must be balanced, for the greater good. We are told our rights must be balanced against park sanitation, business inconvenience, cost of policing, traffic, noise, etc.
A couple of weeks ago, BofA CEO Brian Moynihan, said that BofA has a "right to make a profit". All my conservative friends argued vociferously that I couldn't really criticize that right, all I could do was take my business elsewhere. Apparently, BofA's rights don't need to be balanced!
My 1st amendment rights of speech, assembly and protest must be balanced against sanitation, noise, park maintenance, and traffic
My 1st amendment right to freedom of the press must be balanced against the state secrets doctrine, classified information, the possibility of embarrassment of the US, bandwidth considerations and the profit of telco carriers and cable companies.
My 4th amendment rights against search and seizure need to be balanced against the TSA, the FISA act, the Patriot Act, the war on terror, the war on drugs, the NSA and the insatiable appetite for police power
My 5th amendment right against self-incrimination was waived by the Patriot Act and is subject to waterboarding
My 6th amendment right to a jury trial is rotting in a federal prison next to Bradley Manning, or some shepherd in GITMO or Bagram, or void by a drone strike
My 8th amendment right needs to be balanced against the need for intelligence and was slammed against the wall, waterboarded, renditioned, and sexually humiliated
My 14th amendment right to citizenship by birth is an "anchor baby"
While our rights have been balanced to oblivion, corporations have the right to spend unlimited money - unlimited. They can hire attorneys and "settle" mortgage fraud. Their executives, when occasionally inconvenienced by some accusation get bail, they get a phone call, they don't get beaten to death or raped with a broomstick. They certainly don't get shot on a train platform.
I'm sick of my rights being "balanced".
I am the 99% and I will refuse to obey your orders, I will refuse to disperse, I will refuse to go home and I will refuse to shut up. Balance that.